Imagine having a helpful assistant that knows exactly what each of your customers likes and actively writes personalized emails for you that compel them to not just open but actually engage with every single message.
That’s the incredible promise of AI, or artificial intelligence, when applied to the critical but often overlooked arena of small business email marketing.
Understanding AI in Emails
Email is, of course, a ubiquitous and thus tempting channel to directly communicate with customers.
But generic “spammy” email blasts have made customers numb to generic messaging.
This is where AI changes the entire email marketing equation.
Rather than broadcasting impersonal messages out en masse, AI lets you generate communication that reads like individual personal notes crafted just for specific customers.
Now, AI is obviously still an emerging technology, not a silver bullet. There are absolutely limits to its capabilities today.
But what AI already excels at, thanks to unprecedented advances in natural language processing and generation, is quickly parsing massive volumes of customer data and producing customized content tailored to specific customer preferences and interests.
This ability alone represents an incredible leap in the personalization, relevance and ultimately effectiveness of small business email outreach.
Making Emails Feel Personal with AI
Leveraging the power of AI, here are just some of the ways small businesses can make their email communications connect on a truly personal level:
Individualized Messaging
Because AI can process reams of data about customer preferences and behavior, it can dynamically generate email content for each individual reader.
These aren’t just mail merged names, but messages constructed virtually sentence by sentence based on each customer’s unique interests and engagement history.
Targeted Segment Communication
AI empowers easily dividing customers into segments and subgroups and then creating optimized communication streams for each one.
For example, special offers for high value customers, drip nurture campaigns for promising leads, re-engagement messaging for lapsed buyers etc.
The benefit is that every reader gets communications precisely aligned to who they are.
Continual Optimization
Perhaps most exciting, AI enables a perpetual feedback loop of constant improvement when it comes to critical facets like email subject lines, timing, content, and design.
By perpetually A/B testing variations and assessing open/engagement rates, AI can independently identify trends and opportunities and optimize messaging accordingly.
The Powerful Promise of AI-Driven Email
Implementing AI to drive personalized, optimized email communications at scale promises tremendous benefits:
- Increased sales by connecting customers with hyper-relevant offers and information at exactly the right moments to compel desired actions.
- Improved customer satisfaction and loyalty by demonstrating an intimate understanding of individual preferences and priorities.
- Accelerated growth by uncovering behavioral insights that spotlight new expansion opportunities.
The bottom line is that by leveraging the incredible capability of AI to know each customer as an individual, small business email marketing can transform from an oft-ignored broadcasting tool to the main artery of an intelligent, responsive and ultimately human means of engaging the customers most essential to business success.
It represents a new frontier in the potential of digital communication to build relationships and drive value.
